GST, PST and HST Explained by Province

That $20 item on the shelf isn’t $20 at the till. GST, PST and HST explained by province is the short version of why: nowhere in Canada is the shelf price the till price, and the amount you actually pay depends entirely on which province you’re standing in.

The system in three layers

Canada runs GST — a federal 5% Goods and Services Tax — everywhere. On top of that, most provinces add their own layer, either as a separate provincial sales tax or folded into a single Harmonised Sales Tax (HST) charged federally on the province’s behalf.

Province by province, combined rate

The combined sales tax rates across provinces run from a low of 5% to nearly 15%:

• Alberta, Yukon, Northwest Territories, Nunavut — GST only, 5% combined. No provincial sales tax at all.
• British Columbia — 5% GST plus 7% PST, 12% combined.
• Saskatchewan — 5% GST plus 6% PST, 11% combined.
• Manitoba — 5% GST plus 7% RST, 12% combined.
• Ontario — 13% HST, a single harmonised rate.
• Nova Scotia — 14% HST (cut from 15% on 1 April 2025).
• New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, Prince Edward Island — 15% HST.
• Quebec — 5% GST plus 9.975% QST, 14.975% combined, the highest rate in the country.

Why “harmonised” matters more than it sounds

Knowing which provinces charge harmonised sales tax comes down to this: provinces with HST charge one combined rate collected by the federal government, which then distributes the provincial share back. Provinces that instead run their own separate PST or RST alongside GST — BC, Saskatchewan, Manitoba — keep two visibly different tax lines and, in some cases, different exemption rules between the two. The practical effect for a shopper is roughly the same either way; the difference mostly matters for how a receipt itemises the charge.

The habit that will genuinely trip you up

In South Africa, VAT is baked into the shelf price — the number you see is the number you pay. Canadian prices almost always exclude sales tax entirely. A $20 item costs $22.60 at an Ontario till, once 13% HST is added, and $22.98 in Quebec. This isn’t a minor quirk; it means every price tag, every menu, every online cart total you see while shopping understates what you’ll actually pay, and it’s worth building the mental habit of adding roughly 12–15% to any sticker price before you commit to a purchase.

Tipping compounds it further

Restaurant bills in Canada carry a customary 15–20% tip on top of the tax-added total, which is a second habit South Africans need to build — the final restaurant bill can run meaningfully higher than the menu prices suggested, between tax and tip together.

What’s actually exempt

Basic groceries, prescription drugs and most medical devices are zero-rated for GST/HST, and rent is exempt from sales tax entirely. That’s a genuine relief on the largest recurring household expenses, even where dining out and retail purchases carry the full combined rate.

Why this matters more than the income tax comparison

When people compare provinces on tax, they usually focus on income tax brackets. For everyday spending, sales tax often does more work — Alberta’s 5% versus Ontario’s 13% is a bigger day-to-day difference for most households than the provincial income tax gap at a typical salary.

Cape2Canada’s free What It Really Costs guide breaks the wider cost-of-living picture down category by category, including where sales tax fits into an honest monthly budget.